Some books are published electronically, and are often called “e-books”. Such books may be available for purchase and download via an electronic network. Taking a purely “digital” form, such books may require lower printing and distribution costs, among other things. Further, electronic books may be more readily portable than traditional printed books. E-books may be stored and read on specialized devices called e-readers. E-books may also be stored and read on more general purpose devices, such as tablet computers.
Before the era of e-readers and tablet computers, consumers would purchase physical copies of books for both personal and professional consumption. While many titles were available to be borrowed from a library, many consumers chose to purchase books with the knowledge that they would likely only be read once. A significant factor which contributed to this seemingly uneconomical decision was the consumer interest in showcasing the material he/she had read before others. In other words, the consumer received additional utility from purchasing the book as opposed to simply borrowing it—the benefit of showing others that the book had been read. This additional advantage associated with making the purchase caused consumers to purchase a book which would only be read once and then put on display as both a status symbol to be viewed by others and a means through which the consumer could track his/her own achievements. However, now that electronic means of reading and purchasing written material are available, consumers are currently unable to effectively show others the breadth of their library or monitor their progress towards becoming an avid reader. Notifying friends, family, and coworkers of each and every development within a person's reading life would surely garner a negative response—people do not wish to be inundated with incessant status updates on this subject, and might consider the issuer too forward in touting his/her accomplishments. Since current versions of e-readers have only limited capabilities to connect users through social networking sites, readers must abandon their accomplishments for fear of a negative social response from others.
Thus, in some situations, it may be desirable to provide a reader of an e-book with an alternative memento, demonstrating that the user owns and/or has read a particular e-book.